Our Mission

The Mission of the Institute is to provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write in order to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to national defense.

The French battleships of the Dunkerque and Richelieu classes were the most radical and influential battleship designs of the interwar period, and were coveted by the British, German and Italian navies following the Armistice of June 1940. Using a wealth of primary-source material, some of which has only recently been made available, the authors provide a full account of their development and a detailed analysis of their design characteristics. The technical chapters are interspersed with operational histories, with a particular focus on the operations in which the ships engaged other heavy units. The book is extensively illustrated with hundreds of photographs and technical drawings, including twenty-two color profile and plan views of the ships.

John Jordan is the editor of the Warship annual and a lifelong student of French naval history on which he has written extensively.

Robert Dumas is France's leading expert on warship design, and the author of numerous books and monographs on the ships of the Marine Nationale.

Praise for French Battleships

“Naval nerds delight! The magnificent tome, French Battleships 1922-1956, has been awaiting review for a year; it was not some thing to be rushed. John Jordan and Robert Dumas have turned their passion of studying French capital ships into a durable and valuable historical work of reference, which is also the kind of book which can in spire. As with the great book, The Battlecruiser HMS Hood, by Bruce Taylor, I think I will keep my copy of French Battleships under my pillow for ready reference.”